1455 Summer Literary Festival - 2nd Annual - Friday, Track 2

July 17 - Track 2 - Agenda

Timely & Topical

9:00 AM
First Annual 1455 Storytelling Award: Jean Case

Speaker(s):
Jean Case, Sean Murphy

The 1455 Storytelling Award is given to a single writer for a book or collection that epitomizes not only outstanding narrative skills but is particularly relevant to current events. For our inaugural award, 1455's committee unanimously chose Jean Case's BE FEARLESS: 5 PRINCIPLES FOR A LIFE OF BREAKTHROUGHS AND PURPOSE. While her reputation--first female Chairman of the National Geographic Society, CEO of the Case Foundation, businesswoman, philanthropist, investor, internet pioneer--precedes her, Case draws on her considerable experience to identify five principles typical to individuals and organizations that transform society. At once informative and inspirational, Case's book provides hard-won wisdom and advice informed by success. In a world of disruption, change, uncertainty, and opportunity, Case describes how taking risks, embracing the fear of failure (and learning from past failures), and getting outside one's comfort zone can instill the fearlessness necessary to create meaningful change. Please join 1455's Executive Director, who will present the award and discuss BE FEARLESS with the author.

10:30 AM
True Stories Inspiring Fiction

Speaker(s):
Brandon Taylor, Paul Vidich, Kate Reed Petty

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it also inspires some of the best fiction, and sometimes that fiction even opens up new perspectives on the truth. How does that author decide what to keep and what to discard, or what to change? What's the difference between fiction based on true stories, and historical fiction? Learn more about a genre that crosses many lines from three novelists who’ll discuss the real-life stories that inspired their books, from the utterly personal to the historical to the topical. Brandon Taylor (REAL LIFE), Paul Vidich (THE COLDEST WARRIOR), and Kate Reed Petty (BASED ON A TRUE STORY) will have a conversation about combining facts with fiction. 

1:00 PM
The Sociopolitical Power of Story

Speaker(s):
Holly Karapetkova, Tara Campbell,
David Ebenbach, Melanie Hatter,
Sarah Trembath

In the first half of 2020 we have witnessed COVID-19; the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks; increasing negative impacts of climate change; and a failure of national leadership. What is our role as writers and storytellers in such an environment? How can art, and specifically literature, impact the way people see and engage with the world, and with each other? And what responsibility do we have as writers to engage with the social and political circumstances in which we find ourselves, especially as we are quarantined and physically isolated from one another? For this panel, Holly Karapetkova (WORDS WE MIGHT ONE DAY SAY) will moderate a discussion with writers Tara Campbell (MIDNIGHT AT THE ORGANPORIUM), David Ebenbach (MISS PORTLAND, SOME UNIMAGINABLE ANIMAL), Melanie Hatter (THE COLOR OF MY SOUL), and Sarah Trembath (THIS PAST WAS WAITING FOR ME), engaging in a dialogue about what it means to be a writer in our current political moment and how we can use the power of language and story to resist injustice and fight despair.

2:30 PM
Perspectives and Reflections on Home

Speaker(s):
Caroline Bock, Susan Mockler

Home. The very word conjures a multitude of images and emotions. Think of the many cliché phrases associated with the word: family home, where the heart is, hearth and home, there’s no place like home. There are those, too, for whom home is not a safe place: running away from home, homebound, domestic abuse. And, the ultimate going home at our end. Whatever our experience, our emotional connections to home are strong. Fiction writer Caroline Bock and poet Susan Mockler will discuss different meanings of home in their work and how they’ve come to that meaning. They also will provide a writing prompt for participants to write together at the end and bring the session 'home."

4:00 PM
Tell My Story: Preserving the Memory of a Family Member

Speaker(s):
E. Ethelbert Miller, Kirsten Porter,
Myra Sklarew, Sean Murphy

How do we honor a family member’s life with our words? As writers we can keep our loved ones alive in memoir and poetry, but how do we maintain the integrity of their stories when their memories may be compromised or they are no longer with us? E. Ethelbert Miller (Fathering Words), Kirsten Porter (A Family Apart, upcoming), and Myra Sklarew (Invitation to a Country Called Aging) read from their books and discuss the delicate work of the writer in bringing to light issues on memory, aging, legacy, and the changing roles of family members who become care-takers. Special thanks to Sean Murphy (Please Talk about Me When I’m Gone) for serving as panel moderator.

5:30 PM
How Women Write Horror

Speaker(s):
Danielle Trussoni, Alma Katsu, Elisabeth Thomas, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Bethanne Patrick

Four of today's hottest horror authors, Danielle Trussoni (THE ANCESTOR), Alma Katsu (THE HUNGER), Elisabeth Thomas (CATHERINE HOUSE), and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (GODS OF JADE AND SHADHOW), discuss what it means to be a woman writing in the horror genre, as well as how they each discover their path--be it gothic, historical, sometimes both! From the Italian Alps to Mexican silver mines to Yale University to The Titanic, these writers will thrill you not just with their novels, but with their craft knowledge and deep research. Moderated by Bethanne Patrick (aka @TheBookMaven).

7:00 PM
Alone Together: A COVID Anthology Reading

Speaker(s):
Jennifer Haupt, Sonora Jha, Devi Laskar,
Andrea King Collier, Dani Shapiro,
Caroline Leavitt, Jenna Blum

This collection of essays, poems, and interviews serves as a lifeline for negotiating how to connect and thrive during a time of isolation as well as a historical perspective that will remain relevant for years to come. All proceeds are being donated to The Book Industry Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit organization that coordinates charitable programs to strengthen the bookselling community.  

In response to the pandemic, Jennifer Haupt rallied almost one hundred authors and business partners to contribute their work, free of charge, to support independent booksellers forced to close their doors. The roster of diverse voices includes Faith Adiele, Kwame Alexander, Jenna Blum, Andre Dubus III, Jamie Ford, Nikki Giovanni, Luis Alberto Urrea, Pam Houston, Jean Kwok, Major Jackson, Caroline Leavitt, Devi S. Laskar, Ada Limón, Dani Shapiro, David Sheff, Garth Stein, Steve Yarbrough, and Lidia Yuknavitch. 

The overarching theme of the book is how this age of isolation and uncertainty is changing us as individuals and a society and is divided into five sections: What Now?, Grieve, Comfort, Connect, and Don’t Stop! This session will be moderated by Jennifer Haupt and include readings by Sonora Jha, Devi Laskar, Andrea King Collier, Dani Shapiro, Caroline Leavitt, and Jenna Blum.

Please note: attendance at this panel is a commitment to
purchase a copy of the ALONE TOGETHER anthology.

8:00 PM
Written in Arlington: An Anthology Reading

Speaker(s):
Holly Karapetkova, Aaron R, Katherine Gekker, Martha Sanchez-Lowery, Michael A. Schaffner, Katherine E. Young

Written in Arlington / Spoken in Arlington is a print and digital collection of the poets and poems of Arlington, VA, edited by Katherine E. Young and published by Paycock Press (forthcoming, fall 2020). It is supported in part by Arlington County through the Arlington Cultural Affairs division of Arlington Economic Development and the Arlington Commission for the Arts. More information and a selection of poems from the anthology can be found here: https://katherine-young-poet.com/written-in-arlington/